FROM A SLAVE TO HER MASTER
“To the man who broke my heart, and tore my patience. I hope this finds you well.”
You separated me from my family,
and broke our unity,
You made me work naked in your house,
and stripped me of my dignity,
You sold my sisters as toys to your friends,
and disrespected their virginity,
Oh, how I wished for just a little patience,
at least for them to reach full maturity!
Mama, mama, my boys cried,
as you cut their manhood in the name of war,
I wonder why yours still stayed,
as I always saw you releasing against the walls,
With their pain and anger,
they remained for as long as I can recall,
Oh, how I wished you had paid,
for your abuse by their trip back home!
Unbearable were the trials,
of hunger and thirst,
I was better with the lions,
who chewed on the neck first,
Now am left with mount Zion,
although I doubt in God I still trust,
Oh, how I wished to turn on,
my darkness and make you dust.
After several days of resistance,
it had happened at last,
Although I hated my existence,
I now had to adjust,
I thought I could hold my patience,
lakini usiku kwa machozi nilikesha,
Oh, how I wished it’s my Mr. who made me pregnant,
and not this cold white dirt!
Where is the green I am used to?
Is that too, too much to ask for?
It is spinach that I crave for?
is it bread that I asked for?
Isn’t this black tummy yours too?
Or is it suicide I should run for?
Oh, how I wished I could speak this aloud,
but it was my unborn baby that I was afraid for!
My, my, my, what a beautiful girl you are,
I said!
With your cute blue eyes and your light skin bazaar, I sang!
For you will unite us, I will call you Diamond,
I thought!
Oh, how I wished you didn’t steal her away,
just to show me how cruel you are!
For months I flooded in tears,
while your wife forced me to work,
I couldn’t heal for years,
but you still forced me to work,
Please bring my baby here I asked,
but you went and taught her to write,
Oh, how she must have hated her class,
like in a white party without an invite!
“Kumbuka haya Mondala,
with a song from the cabin,
mateso ya fimbonyala, is more than you can imagine,
bila viatu au ndala, a towel or a napkin,
masaa matatu kulala, before the dogs start barking,
treated like a gorilla, what a life it has been,
Black Diamond you are and freedom is your calling.”
